Makin' Waves

I don't understand, why are you so vehemently against whaling? Managed killing of other species for food is commonplace, what make the whales so special? The Eqgyptians used to revere cats, the Vitnamese eat them. Why should the Japanese be forced to respect your reverence for whales?

It is hard enough to manage fisheries sustainably and whales are even harder. Japan plans to start commercial whaling again and my concern is that the species, which were nearly wiped out last time they did that, and have still not recovered to natural levels - will again be threatened by commercial exploitation.

All species are not the same when it comes to hunting them in a sustainable manner. You speak of cats but these are not endangered or even threatened.

My beef isn't simply because whales are pretty... but have you ever seen a whale die after it's been hit by an exploding harpoon? I have. It's nowhere near any of the "humane" ways we are happy to use for killing livestock and it can take more than half an hour for the whales to die.

I think sustaining a moratorium long term is an extreme concept. Managed whaling is no different than managed fishing, although the management strategy may be different.

Sorry if you are empathetic to suffering animals, but that has nothing to do with fisheries management and rational decision making. Fish suffer, lobsters suffer, for all we know carrots suffer when you pull them out of the soil and they start to die. It is all a part of life and death. I'm sure whales that die of old age suffer too.

I have lived and worked on a farm and seen pigs slaughtered many times, believe me, it isn't "humane" at all. They are tied up by their feet while they squeal and their throats are cut. There is a bucket underneath them to catch the blood.

Read the slaghter portion of this article.

Hi again Dreamer,

I guess you didn't notice that I put the word HUMANE in quotes when I made the satement about livestock farming. I don't think livestock farming is humane either but people are quite happy to accept it. I am not one of them.

I know how pigs die thanks :op but you should watch this video. It lasted for about 30 mins! So all I was saying was that this was even worse than livestock farming.

I am against whaling mainly for environmental reasons. I don't want to get into a debate on cruelty because you can debate on that all day and still end up nowhere.

I don't believe you can manage whales as easily as you can manage fish and since we can barely manage fish - why should we be trusted to manage whales? Look what happened last time!

There is a lot of money to be made from whale watching and there is no economic need for whaling. The demand for the meat is low to non existent in Iceland, Norway and Japan. There aren't any poor fishing villages that are waiting to resume whaling in order to feed a demanding population.

I'm not sure about Japan but in Norway and iceland there is a much greater demand for whale watching than there is for whaling.

Although the High North Alliance insist that whale watching and whaling go together nicely and that tourists will not mind if a country is a whaling. From my own discussions with tourists in Iceland and from the 69,000 people who have taken the Greenpeace pledge - it would appear that the High North Alliance is wrong!

Additionaly it is interesting to note that Norway started whale watching in 1986 and had 20,000 whale watchers in 2004 out of a total of 5 million tourists. Iceland on the other hand, which does not hunt whales to the same extent or as blatantly for commercial use started whale watching in 1995 and had over 82,000 whale watchers that year out of a record breaking 360,000 tourists. I find it hard to believe that these statistics have nothing to do with the fact that Norway openly hunts hundreds of whales for profit every year.

This year Japan is going to kill humpback whales. This species is endangered. they claim their whaling is for "scientific research" but many whale scientistis insist that all of the knowledge can be gained via non lethal methods. Japan butchers the whales after tkaing "samples" and then all of the meat ends up for sale or sitting in a freezer for years while they persistently try to expand the almost non existent market for whale meat.

Japan is dishonest. They clearly lie about their scientific intentions and they buy other countries votes at the IWC.

Despite this, there are still more countries in the world against commercial whaling than there are for it - if you don't like that fact - you can take it up with them.

Laters
L.

I am glad your research is more accurate than that of the High North Alliance, you must be very clever.

69,000 people is 0.001% of the world population, roughly the population of Bermuda, hardly a convincing number. Greenpeace is a fundamentalist movement, not a legislative body.

Iceland does blatantly hunt whales, as does the US, Japan, Norway and the Grenadines.

And finally, according to the BBC, of the 6 species of whale useful for commercial whaling, the fin whale and the sei whale are listed as endangered, not the humpback. The minke is at a current worldwide population of around 1 million individuals, and is only still referred to as endangered by environmentalists to suit their agenda. So who is dishonest?

I just prefer rational thought to allowing people to be ruled by emotion. Managed whaling is possible and I still believe a moratorium on whaling is unrealistic and unacceptable.

Here is an interesting read regarding Japan / US ideas about whaling.

And after reading this address by Japan to the European Parliament, it is no surprise that the Japanese have taken their whaling management into their own hands.

"I am glad your research is more accurate than that of the High North Alliance"

The High North Alliance made a statement on BBC talking point - which I was taking part in - and they made no attempt to back this up with any research. The information I provided regarding whaling and whale watching was given to me from the owner/manager of the Husavik whale museum in Iceland.

"69,000 people is 0.001% of the world population, roughly the population of Bermuda, hardly a convincing number.

I was merely stating that it was a fact that 69,000 people have stated they will ONLY visit Iceland if it stops ALL whaling. The value of this tourism is 80.8 million USD compared to the value of Iceland's commercial whaling industry at its peak, which was only 4 million USD.

Who cares that this many people are equivalent to the population of Bermuda? That's not the point. You really should try clicking on my hyperlinks you know!

"Greenpeace is a fundamentalist movement, not a legislative body."

I didn't claim that Greenpeace was a legislative body. Why you feel the need to tell me this is beyond me.

"Iceland does blatantly hunt whales, as does the US, Japan, Norway and the Grenadines."

Iceland does not openly hunt whales for commercial use like Norway does. That was my point. Nothing else.

"And finally, according to the BBC, of the 6 species of whale useful for commercial whaling, the fin whale and the sei whale are listed as endangered, not the humpback. The minke is at a current worldwide population of around 1 million individuals, and is only still referred to as endangered by environmentalists to suit their agenda. So who is dishonest?"

Are you making this statement in an attempt to counter something I said?

It's true that the Japanese want to kill humpbacks this year in the name of science - science that can be done by non-lethal means... and it's true that this species is still listed as endangered. So I'm not sure what you are trying to prove here.

In 2005 Japan announced that they would significantly expand their whaling. With the adoption of this plan, Japan’s lethal take will include 100 sei whales, 10 sperm whales, 50 humpback whales, 50 fin whales, and 50 Bryde’s whales, all of which are endangered, along with 1,155 minke whales.

There is no scientific need for this hunt, nor is there an economic need. It is simply a matter of politics and greed.

I don't know of any environmentalist who has referred to the minke whale as endangered. However, their population estimates are uncertain and sustainable management planning does not involve waiting for a species to become endangered before it is protected. Minke whales once existed in the MILLIONS. Why do you think that whaling can be managed sustainably? Why should we take the risk when there is no need?